Preface - Over shot, yes! Amazing to experience, even though I had seen hundreds of images of it, yes! Did I present a unique version of this icon, I hope so. You be the judge. I haven't seen the entire cavern captured with this massive field of view. It wasn't an easy task (photographing and stitching/processing)
This is what you get to see after roughly 5 miles of strenuous hiking through 45°F water. I’ve been meaning to get to this area since 2005. Finally, after ten years, it worked out. What your seeing here is a stitch of four images at 14mm. Each image consists of 7 bracketed shots to fully cover the massive dynamic range present. I’ve seen dozens of images from this spectacular area, but none of them encompassed the entire view. ( or prepared me for the sheer awe of this incredible place ) When I arrived I could see why. It’s MUCH bigger than I imagined. I wanted to capture then entire cavern, including the all of the green pool. Having been to Zion a couple times, and finally getting out to the remote North Creek area, I have to say it was so rewarding and quite worth the effort.
Processing / blending these shots was tricky. Stitching together 14mm images is not easy IMHO. As for the 7 exposures... I typically start on one end of the histogram, and manually adjust one stop at a time encompassing the entire exposure range without clipping the highlight or shadow points. Yes, I could have gone with possibly two images, but in my experience, the image turns out much more natural and clean in the end. The colors are slightly enhanced, to create more chroma separation from all the amazing hues present. In fact, recalling the experience to this wonderful location is like a dream. I wouldn't mind standing in that frigid cold water right now.
How early did you get there? The two time I have been there, we left the car at sunrise and got back to the car at sunset and were usually at the Subway around mid day. This looks like you may have been there a little earlier in the morning with all the blues, or is that just the processing?
We usually spent quite a bit of time at Arch Angle Falls and then played around at the crack for a while before heading up to the subway. Last fall we had to help an injured hiker back out before returning and we only had about 15 min at Arch Angle before the direct light was on it and we moved on.
Iconic? Yes!! Do I ever tire of seeing GREAT images from the Subway? Hell No!!
Nice job!! I've been there myself and can relate to the amount of energy it took to get there....and back!! (Many people forget it is another 5 tiring miles coming back)
Epic shot of an iconic location..
How long does it take to blend together 7 exposures..u must have spent the same amount of time on PP as getting to the Subway and back!!
Great work..
Spectacular image. I love the iridescence in the lower right. There is a line running more or less vertically starting from the bottom of the image near the lower left corner up to the subway wall. It doesn't seem like the right place where one would expect to see stitching artifacts from a 4 image pano. Is that just a natural line or crack in the rock?
All the superlative adjectives are already taken. I'd agree - its a great shot of a great location. All the work on stitching and blending, not to mention the hike itself, has paid off. Well done.
The "dreamy glow" that I often see on landscape images these days seems a bit much, I'd maybe lower the opacity on that a bit, but that's just my personal tendency towards natural looking images. It is clear here that you're creating a work of art, not trying to document a scene for scientific purposes. ;-)
How early did you get there? The two time I have been there, we left the car at sunrise and got back to the car at sunset and were usually at the Subway around mid day. This looks like you may have been there a little earlier in the morning with all the blues, or is that just the processing?
We usually spent quite a bit of time at Arch Angle Falls and then played around at the crack for a while before heading up to the subway. Last fall we had to help an injured hiker back out before returning and we only had about 15 min at Arch Angle before the direct light was on it and we moved on....Show more →
And then some strange guy wearing a backpack filled with furniture hiked through your shot. :-)
Wow! This is really a captivating composition. Personally I would prefer slightly less color enhancement to make it more natural looking - although I would not change a thing on the top right. Maybe also a little less blue in the highlights.
Dave
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Started hiking the hike way before sunrise in the dark. Thanks to a great video / info that I saw from Ben Horne, thanks Ben! Spent a whole day around The Subway and Arch Angel Falls area. Not many hikers on that day, which was nice.
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Between the water and bringing too much gear, the pack weight kicked my ass, but definitely worth it. I'd pack lighter next time.
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I've been working on and off on this image for a few months. At any given time I have a dozen or so images on the back burner.
Lobohowler wrote:
Spectacular image. I love the iridescence in the lower right. There is a line running more or less vertically starting from the bottom of the image near the lower left corner up to the subway wall. It doesn't seem like the right place where one would expect to see stitching artifacts from a 4 image pano. Is that just a natural line or crack in the rock?
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It's a fault line / crack. I added an image to show it in more detail. It does look sorta weird in placement, but the photo really isn't showing the same degree of slope / pitch that is present.
matthewsaville wrote:
The "dreamy glow" that I often see on landscape images these days seems a bit much, I'd maybe lower the opacity on that a bit, but that's just my personal tendency towards natural looking images. It is clear here that you're creating a work of art, not trying to document a scene for scientific purposes. ;-)
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I totally get that. It's borderline over the top. I use to prep photos for each site I post one. 500px, Flickr, Instagram, FB, and 1X add a bit more color and contrast as well as glow. For NPN, Nat Geo, and FM keep it a bit more on the natural side. Now, I basically go with the enhanced color and contrast, to save time.
Ben Horne wrote:
And then some strange guy wearing a backpack filled with furniture hiked through your shot. :-)
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Ben first let me say, your images of this area are some of my favorites. There was some corny large format shooter hauling a 2500 lb 11 x 14 ULF camera with a horse and trailer up the slot canyon. Kept mumbling "f64, f64". I threw rocks at him to keep him out of my shot. He later mounted a surprise attack and made me say uncle while filling my soiled pants with sand. Crazy bastard.
JimFox wrote:
Hey Matt,
I bet if this is printed on metal it would really glow. Nice work with the pano here.
Jim
Jim I agree. Or a fuji flex supergloss acrylic/dibond -diasec mounted print with some sweet mr16 halogen bulbs lighting it up!
Thanks for all your comments guys, really appreciate it!
